On the Statistics of Cognitive Radio Capacity in Shadowing and Fast Fading Environments

Abstract: In this paper we consider the capacity of the cognitive radio channel in a fading environment under a "low interference regime". This capacity depends critically on a power loss parameter, $\alpha$, which governs how much transmit power the cognitive radio dedicates to relaying the primary message. We derive a simple, accurate approximation to $\alpha$ which gives considerable insight into system capacity. We also investigate the effects of system parameters and propagation environment on $\alpha$ and the cognitive radio capacity. In all cases, the use of the approximation is shown to be extremely accurate. Finally, we derive the probability that the "low interference regime" holds and demonstrate that this is the dominant case, especially in practical cognitive radio deployment scenarios.